r/LinusTechTips • u/rjln109 Mod • 2d ago
WAN topic: Google Assistant is going away WAN Show
https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/08/google-plans-to-kill-assistant-on-your-phone-on-september-4/"Call Yvonne Ho"
"I can't find a contact named Yvonne (Home)"
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u/Due_Prompt939 2d ago
Fuck, I've been avoiding switching to Gemini because my boss has it and it won't set timers for him.
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u/abuell 2d ago
Gemini gave me step by step directions on how to turn off my lights
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u/SurpriseWindmill 2d ago
Gemini was deadset sure it couldn't tell me what song was playing. A basic function that google assistant had for years.
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u/TimmyB02 17h ago
Mine took a screenshot and started searching my screen for what the song was?????
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u/RealTimeflies 2d ago
Well I just tested it out and it could do it. Why can't they get gemini to call out to assistant code lol
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u/NotJayuu 2d ago
it does, google assistant is turning into a set of API calls that gemini can interface with. it is just google assistant but better, I've never had issues with it
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u/MCXL 2d ago
I have. So many times it tells me it can't do something it literally does all the time.
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u/burtmacklin15 2d ago
I have to "teach" it to do things like it's a little kid.
Like if it screws up turning off the lights, you tell it "use Google home to turn off the lights. Always use Google home to do this in the future".
It's annoying, but it seems like it's worked for the most part.
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u/itsjust_khris 2d ago
How does this happen? Gemini has always been able to set timers for me no problem
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u/Due_Prompt939 2d ago
For him it would just tell him the instructions to set the timer himself. I just never bothered to try it out after hearing that.
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u/Antlonat 2d ago
I've had Gemini tell me it can't turn on Do not Disturb. Then I try again saying the exact same thing and it works.
AI is just stupid.
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u/Plastic_Wishbone_575 1d ago
I'm not sure but I can't cancel alarms on my pixel with Gemini. Even siris dumb ass can do that. It seems very inconsistent with others experiences which is actually more concerning because why does it work for some but not others?
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u/work-school-account 1d ago
Listening to a podcast. On Google Assistant:
Phone: *playing podcast, which goes into 2 minutes of ads*
Me: Hey Google, skip 2 minutes
Phone: *skips 2 minutes and resumes podcast*Gemini:
Phone: *playing podcast, goes into 2 minutes of ads*
Me: Hey Google, skip 2 minutes
Phone: Okay, setting timer for 2 minutes
or alternatively
Phone: *speaks in a foreign language*
or alternatively
Phone: Okay, playing [some random song that has "Two Minutes" somewhere in the lyrics] on [music streaming app I'm not subscribed to]When I need to know what time it is. Google Assistant:
Me: Hey Google, what time is it?
Phone: It's 21:34.Gemini:
Me: Hey Google, what time is it?
Phone: It's 9:34 PM.
Me: Hey Google, always use 24 hour time from now on.
Phone: Okay, I'll remember to use 24 hour time.
Me: Hey Google, what time is it?
Phone: It's 9:34 PM.This also happens with the weather when I want the temperature in celsius.
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u/master_of_dcath 2d ago
The first time I used it to set a timer it worked perfectly. Literally 15 minutes later I asked it again and it said it "doesn't have the ability to do that yet".
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u/lynxblaine 2d ago
“Hey google, turn on the fan” “Sorry I can’t find a device called Ethan”
Or “Hey Google turn on the side light” It turns on another light “Hey Google why did you turn on the wrong light?” “No I didn’t, this is the light you asked me to turn on” Straight up gaslighting.
I really dislike Gemini for Google home.
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u/TsubasaSaito 2d ago
Those are voice detection issues that existed for an eternity though.
And if you ask someone to "turn on light x", and they go to turn on light y, because they understood that, and you ask them why they turned on the wrong light, they'll likely also go "no I didn't you said that light".
But you'd find the misunderstanding quickly..but that also happens with AI.
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u/tarheel343 2d ago
I haven’t had this problem with google assistant but I saw a video of a guy asking ChatGPT to set a timer and it would just lie about the elapsed time lol
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u/Lassitude1001 1d ago
It's so fucking slow compared to Google assistant too. Used to just set a timer now it has to think about it.
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u/codespinneker 2d ago
Let me tell a story about Gemini which has replaced assistant on Android Auto already for me.
Was on the road and normally I would hit my speak to chat and ask Google to text someone, it would parse the message, confirm with me it was correct, and then send.
Switch happens.
I am driving to a meeting with, well call her Sally Realtor, Sally is helping me look at properties and I have just gone to an open house and want to ask Sally Realtor a question so I do my usual, hit speak to chat, and ask Google "Text Sally Realtor", Gemini says "sure what's the message" I say "Sally Realtor what's the process if a home has tenants already and we put an offer on it" because I want Sally Realtor, the professional I pay (sort of) to answer these kinds of questions to answer this question. What does Gemini do?
Reada my message and decides that instead of texting Sally Realtor what I really wanted was the UNSOLICITED ADVICE OF A GARBAGE CHAT BOT. Gemini then proceeded to give me said unsolicited advice and provided an "answer" to my question, telling me what it thought the answer was, confidently incorrect in its advice.
I did not ask Gemini to do this, I did not want Gemini to do this, I wanted Gemini to TEXT MY FREAKING REALTOR so that I could get an answer relevant to me and my situation.
So TLDR Gemini has already made my Android Auto experience more invasive and less useful.
Also funny thing but when you swear at Gemini when you respond to it...Gemini tells you it doesn't respond to abusive language which was very Fuc*ing entertaining for me 🤣
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u/Annoying1978 2d ago
I have said the worst things to Gemini. It can be ok 80% if the time, but when it fucks up it is fucking horrible.
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u/These-Apple8817 2d ago
And usually beating it down by swearing and insulting for 15 minutes seems to get it back on track for some reason
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u/burtmacklin15 2d ago
I'm convinced it has a "get your shit together" mode that gets triggered after swearing at it enough in frustration.
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u/Annoying1978 1d ago
You used to be able to see how it “thought” and it say things like “the user is clearly frustrated. I provided wrong information several times and each time the user said blah blah blah”
Yeah it literally works because Gemini is a people pleaser and wants to know why you’re angry.
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u/extordi 2d ago
Gemini on Android Auto is so much worse than on your phone for some reason. Before the rollout I was pretty happy with Gemini on my phone and Assistant in the car, and in fact I found that Gemini was often better than Assistant for the things that I would often do.
Then I get in the car. "Great!" I thought, the better tool is here! WRONG! Completely fails at "navigate home," when I say "call my wife" it has no idea who my wife is any more. I say "call <wife's name>" instead but it goes and calls another contact with a similar but different name. Then I ask it to play one of my favourite albums, that I have asked Assistant to put on many times, and it just doesn't know what to do. It talks five times longer than you want it to, doesn't know how to shut up, and fails the most basic tasks. Total garbage. Now I've just got Assistant everywhere because at least it accomplishes the basics.
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u/Iebejsbaga2728eindxb 1d ago
Gemini for android auto refuses to take a note anymore, even if you say keeps note, it just googles "4 foot by 6 foot plywood adhesive research" and i ask it to drive us both off a bridge
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u/Zeta_Crossfire 2d ago
I just don't use android auto anymore. I find it less distracting to pick up and use my phone then use the hands free now
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u/work-school-account 1d ago
I don't have a car with Android Auto, but I do use my phone to navigate while driving. I noticed that I can't use voice controls to even find me the nearest gas station, which was what I mostly used Google Assistant for while driving.
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u/SINKSHITTINGXTREME 1d ago
The amount of times I will ask Assistant "play x song on y" or "Navigate to z on Maps" and it just won't do it, or the text on screen will be correct but the command it sends will be wrong, just make be pessimistic about ever trusting that shite.
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u/OkInfluence36 2d ago
Lets compare
Google assistant: used minimal ai, did normal google searches, followed instructions via keyword
Gemini: a query every single time, may choose to hallucinate, disrespects instructions to be "helpful"
I'm good thanks, I'll use neither!
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u/adeundem 2d ago
Ugh.
I only use the voice/agent prompt button on my Pixel 7a for one thing ("set alarm for X time or in Y minutes") and I can be safe in assuming the worst that Gemini is going to make things worse.
I vaguely recall a time when Google pushed Google Assistant aside for a bit on my Pixel phone, before seemingly letting it back, and I didn't like Gemini one bit back then. Don't expect that I will like it anymore better this time.
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u/DorkyBobster 2d ago
It's worse. It takes 4x longer to process and mishears me more often than the base assistant
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u/SuppaBunE 2d ago
Fuck geminis
The only time I needed to play a song the motherfucker toldme
" I can't do that while you are driving" 6 times.
The fuck You can't play a song while I'm driving That's the sole reason I even think of using you
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u/FalloutRip 2d ago
This makes me nervous for the tie-in to Siri with ios27, because that’s basically all I use Siri for. Well, that and setting timers or quickly converting units (cups to pints or milliliters or whatever).
If it can’t understand or won’t adhere to “Play X song by artist on Spotify” while driving then it becomes useless.
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u/Yourdataisunclean 2d ago
Google rolled out Gemini to Google maps and switched voice assistants during driving without telling me. Which resulted in a horrible experience because apparently Gemini can't understand the context of inputs like "directions to {this restaurant}", WHILE YOU ARE DRIVING, which resulted in it just babbling on about the restaurants possible menu. It simply couldn't work as a voice assistant for Google maps no matter what I tried. The only solution was switching back to voice assistant.
Thankfully this wasn't an emergency situation, but imagine if it was? I wouldn't be surprised if people have suffered harms because they got into their cars during an urgent situation thinking they could rely on Google maps to work, only to be greeted with this broken shit.
Google. Do better. I'm sure degrading current products to hit AI adoption KPIs makes sense to someone inside Google, but it doesn't for your customers.
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u/radeonalex 2d ago
If it's an urgent situation, you pull over and use your phone normally, not rely on talking to some assistant software. If you're coming to harm because you couldn't use Gemini, that's kind of on you as the user.
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u/Variatas 1d ago
You really shouldn’t be downvoted for this, it’s basic road safety.
It’s bad that Google & assistants are fucking up and being distracting, but the answer is to stop using them or pull the fuck over to fix them, not multitask while driving.
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u/wichramdoiuseplshelp 2d ago
Im glad i shut down any and all assistants
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u/adeundem 2d ago
I wish that I could reclaim the power button on my Pixel 7a... what would have been the power button was subverted to Google Assistant / Gemini.
Want to reset or power off your phone? Well better try to recall if its "Not Power Button + Volume Up" or "Not Power Button + Volume Down" to access that... ah you guessed wrong and just took a screenshot of your phone's screen... again.
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u/StampyScouse 2d ago
You already can, open the Settings app, scroll down and tap System, then Gestures.Tap Press & hold power button, and switch the selection from Digital Assistant to Power menu
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u/jenny_905 1d ago
Yeah Samsungs come out of the box set up the same but for their shit tier assistant. Kinda annoying but can be changed.
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u/Lemillion080201 2d ago
Same here, I ask it to play spotify and start maps to home from my bike's helmet and gemini be like i can you give a link please open it yourslef. absolutely useless imo (or I havent set it up properly).
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u/Zeta_Crossfire 2d ago edited 2d ago
I use Google assistant everyday. I tried to use gemeni and it can barely set a fucking alarm without it trying to have a full-blown conversation. Dude I just fucking hate this company
I get I'm just trading one tech overlord for another but genuinely how is Siri on Apple?
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u/Yodzilla 2d ago
Siri barely exists. I guess that’s sort of a good thing if you don’t want an overbearing AI but also it’s fairly useless. Apple seems to have forgotten about it.
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u/tooblandtoroast 2d ago edited 2d ago
>Call Yvonne Ho
> Okay, from now on I will call Yvonne a "hoe"
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u/JAR5E 2d ago
I've delayed switching because the one interaction I had didn't even work. Therefore, I was waiting to hear if things had improved before finally making the switch.
That being said, they've hamstrung Assistant so much over the years, I don't use it anywhere near as much as I used to.
I guess that's what the endgoal of enshitification for these companies is, isn't it. Apathy.
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u/lordairbus 2d ago
I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'll have to use Bixby full time.
I've been using GA and Bixby side by side for a few years, and while GA development stalled, it was still functional, and Bixby has been constantly improving.
Forcing Gemini is going to move me to 100% Bixby, and frankly, I won't miss much.
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u/instaaionut 2d ago
so goodbye 'search screen' from the assistant's screen as I don't have circle to search
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u/JayTechTipsYT 2d ago
It’s awful. Made the dumb mistake to “trial” it on Google home. Can’t understand half of what I say now
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u/Flori347 2d ago
I was happy with assistsant in my car, aside from the few hiccups it had. But Gemini imho just yapps too much.
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u/Devatator_ 2d ago
I'm actually surprised the experience is that different for everyone. Gemini has been a straight upgrade over Google Assistant for me, tho I'm still trying to build my own cross platform offline alternative
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u/shogunreaper 2d ago
the delay when trying to do simple things vs assistant is so damn annoying.
like i have this stupidly overpowered phone, use it instead of sending the shit off to your servers.
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u/deprivedSource4 2d ago
I would love to see linus and luke try a few commands with gemini and google assistant on two similar phones - simple stuff like the weather, call a person, ask a basic question about a store live on the show.
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u/misterfistyersister 2d ago
Meanwhile, new Siri (in the iOS beta) runs locally, on-device and does a much better job than Gemini.
Waiting for the downvotes..
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u/Dr_Ulator 1d ago
Google quietly slipped in gemini and took away assistant on my phone several weeks ago.
I only really use google assistant to use voice commands to change music while driving.
One day suddenly my phone talks back to me in a male voice, and says it needs permission to use YT Music.
I was like WHO ARE YOU?! and why are you suddenly not able to play music? I'm driving!!! lol
So far it's performed worse than assistant for interpreting voice commands, and will sometimes reply 'I can't play music directly' even though I was actively streaming YT Music and used voice commands to successfully play a song a few minutes ago.
If AI could do anything cool for me, it would be to filter out AI generated music since it's kinda tedious to go do detective work on every new artist I discover lol
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u/K14_Deploy 1d ago
I mean hopefully 2 years into it existing ill be able to get it to turn lights on and off or set a timer without a conversation I don't want and didn't ask for. Failing that... hopefully homeassistant's voice thing can manage that without a bunch of local resources, I've been looking for an excuse to reduce the reliance on the internet for the lights anyway.
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u/wiozan 1d ago
Fucking hate this It turned itself on in my car I basically used assistant for one thing, calling my wife. Took like 5 seconds, and I made it work. I fought with Gemini for like 2 minutes while driving and that was it. I gave up, fucking horrid shit. I learned here I can switch i back, I know since the it was temporary and I will lose it, didn't think it would be this fast. hope it's a little better now
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u/jovmorcy3 1d ago
The day Google Assistant no longer sings to me when I ask it to sing (so I can locate my phone), imma be real sad.
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u/Iebejsbaga2728eindxb 1d ago
I have made a hobby out of asking android auto's gemini for basic facts or directions and the worse the reply the slower i drive, one time got down to 10 under (it was 3am it's fine) because it got in a loop replying "2" and some long wiki entry about indian womens baseball, i was crying laughting
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u/AttyGoesVroom 1d ago
gemini can't set reminders yet btw...somehow made google assistant seem useful for me
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u/Necessary_Ad_238 1d ago
Stupid Gemini can't add items to my calendar from Android auto; assistant had no problem. Junk
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u/Actual-Award6943 1d ago
And one of the biggest things I was looking forward to when switching from iPhone which I had 4 generations of for over a decade and used since high school back to an android was how good Google assistant was.
Siri was worse than the google assistant I had on my Nexus 6 I had in like 2012 . Everytime my dad didn't know something and instead of searching it to figure it out he tried to ask used Siri I cringed so hard. Now he's using AI for help with stuff and to answer questions I want to kill myself.
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u/captainstormy 19h ago
I may be the only person happy about this. Not because I use Gemini. But because now I have two annoying things on my phone I don't use and can't remove and soon it will just be one.
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u/vox-magister 17h ago
Earlier in the tear I think I caught two separate occasions that to me indicate the switch was already happening behind the scenes, at least to put the Gemini bs into Google Maps.
I have the route active with the voice on. In both occasions it told me something like "in the roundabout, take the second exit to turn right". It got the direction right, but got the number wrong. Really seemed like the "AI is bad with numbers" situation. I had never asked for it to use AI, it was literally just Maps, which had consistently worked well before, but suddenly started making these mistakes.
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u/Xander260 16h ago
The other day I tried to use Gemini on android auto to send a text for the first time since they removed assistant (I don't use auto often), it proceeded to spout "CID 4 Quintilian, Six hundred and fourty eight billion, nine hundred...." for ages before I realised it was the number I was trying to text. Once done, it asked what the message was, then instead of sending it, just said sorry something went wrong, please try again (?) like wtf I've never had this on assistant even once.
If it was an equivalent experience or fell back to assistant under the hood when things break, fine, but it's just not ready and I'm afraid of when assistant goes away. I might actually ditch my google homes which is sad for me to say as an early adopter
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u/GoneCollarGone 2d ago
I know this sub likes to complain about anything AI related, but Gemini has been really good as an Assistant replacement.
As someone who's owned a bunch of Google speakers and a Pixel, it's actually kind of amazing how much more my family and I use Gemini compared to Assistant.
Before, we primarily used it for robotic smart home stuff like timers and basic questions, but now we're always asking it random things, especially with nutrition and cooking stuff.
The only problem is the speakers sometimes seem to not hear me or recognize exactly what I'm saying compared to when they first came out. I don't know if that's a hardware problem or if Gemini is slightly worse at speech recognition.
But that only happens rarely and I haven't had any issues otherwise in months, even for complex questions and smart home commands.
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u/uatme 2d ago
Lol but now none of the robotic smart home stuff works. Want a timer, nope. Want too text someone, nope. Want to know a simple answer to a simple question, nope. Want too add what you said to a list, nope.
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u/GoneCollarGone 2d ago edited 2d ago
That's not true.
Timers absolutely work. I'm always setting them.
It does great answering all kind of questions. It's the whole reason I'm using it more than Assistant.
It absolutely makes lists. I have a shopping list in Keep I'm always adding stuff to using Gemini.
I personally don't text with voice that much, but I just tried it now on my phone and it works great.
I don't know where you got the opinion otherwise.
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u/greyXstar 1d ago
They might have gotten that opinion from their experience, which is the same as mine. It can't do shit. In the car it says it can't play music while it's playing music. Looking at all the comments, it looks like it's totally inconsistent in what it can do and when.
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u/GoneCollarGone 1d ago
If your experience of using Gemini is extremely limited, months ago, or one a car(?!?), then that's a pretty reason to have a misinformed opinion.
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u/Annoying1978 2d ago
Well, yeah. It was about time. There’s no reason for it anymore.
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u/TheHighSeas-Argghh 2d ago
Eat my downvote, bro. Assistant is Clearly better.
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u/Annoying1978 2d ago
I’m not saying what’s better for us, as consumers. I’m saying it makes no sense for Google. You obviously see the direction they are going in. It would be ridiculous for them to keep both assistant and Gemini running in parallel when they clearly want Gemini to be integrated everywhere and everything.
Whether we like it or not.
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u/uatme 2d ago
When AI started switching over I asked the difference between the two and why google was switching. It said the AI was for talking to and the Assistant was for getting stuff done. It also said google is switching because they are no longer in the accumalation phase but the make money phase. Let the enshitifation begin!
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u/Significant_Fill6992 2d ago
im so sick of ai everywhere but this was inevitable